Google Art Project – Expansion

The Google Art Project began in January 2011 with the lofty goal of allowing users access to views of artworks in 17 participating museums. Google announced on Tuesday, April 3rd, that the project has now been expanded to include 151 institutions in 40 different countries around the world (when the program launched, it spanned the United States and eight European nations). Instead of around 1,000 paintings, visitors will now have the ability to get close-up looks of 32,000 works through ultra-high resolutions images, encompassing paintings, photographs, sculptures and even textiles and ceramics. Google Art Project also provides a virtual tour of 46 museums using Google Street technology, featuring images larger than a gigapixel (1 billion pixels). Click through for a video teaser of what the upgraded project has to offer.